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An online resource for definitions of concepts complete with full citations

About this site

AnthroDef is a collaborative project with the purpose of collecting and presenting definitions of anthropological concepts; only definitions which were published in academic literature are featured, along with full citations. AnthroDef is meant for anyone who is interested in anthropology and related disciplines, and is a particularly useful tool for writing papers. Whether you are a researcher, a PhD student, a master's student or a young undergraduate - this site is for you. Browse, copy, share, and take part in creating the web's largest reservoir of anthropological definitions!

... that in 1868, John Stuart Mill defined definition as "a proposition declaratory of the meaning of a word; namely, either the meaning which it bears in common acceptation, or that which the speaker or writer ... intends to annex to it.”

Mill, J.S. , A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive: Being a Connected View of The Principles of Evidence, and the Methods of Scientific Investigation, 7th ed., Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, London. 1868:149

... that according to Wierzbicka, "One cannot define all words, because the very idea of ‘‘defining’’ implies that there is not only something to be defined but also something to define it with."

You are encouraged to add more than one definition per concept (because if every concept had but one definition, anthropology would be kind of dull, don't you think?).

To create a new article, add the concept to the main page (take note that the list is alphabetically ordered), save it, and enter the red link that appears. You will then access the edit part of this page.

As far as style and format are concerned, just stick to the same style and format you see in the site's other articles. You can copy and paste the HTML code from the 'edit' tab in any page in this site.

If you choose to edit or delete an existing article, add a short summary of what you did in the discussion section, along with a short explanation. The discussion sections of each article are also the place to raise questions and topics for - well - discussion.